>I see, I think.
>
>So one might correctly conclude that all that .NET really is is:
>1) the addition of more, and especially more public, facilities to the base OSs;
>2) the revision of significant portions of the OSs;
>3) the introduction of a few new tools to better exploit the above-mentioned things.
>
>Would that be close? [realizing, of course, that the word 'all' used above is not meant to imply a small amount of work by MS]
>

The .NET framework doesn not change the OS. It sits on top of it. The .NET framework makes it easier (IMO) to develop applications when compared to VB 6.0, for example, because many of the pieces needed to build the application are already done for you. You just plug together what you want.